National committee includes local A-level student

Kay Poon, a teenager from Edmonton, North London has been chosen to be part of a youth select committee that will take part in a debate in the House of Commons. The 18 year old will be debating with other teenagers about the issues affecting young people nationwide.

Kay started to work on giving young people in her area a voice two years ago. She shadowed Conservative MP David Davis last year and was able to see the real select committee in action. She was interested to see how the group put their political differences in order to try and sort out the problems in the country and she was inspired to apply for the youth select committee.

The teenager, who is studying for her A-levels said: “After I applied to be on the committee, they called me in for an interview, and I think the fact that I was part of the Edmonton Youth Forum really helped as they could see I was genuinely interested in giving young people a voice.

“I became interested in politics when I started studying economics at school and realised that I could help change things for young people living in this area.”

The youth select committee’s inquiry will focus on transport.

She said: “There are people from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland on the committee and it made me realise that transport in London is actually pretty good.

“Now that education is compulsory up to the age of 18, young people up to that age need to be able to travel around without the worry of it costing a lot.”

Kay is one of the 11 strong committee who were chosen out of 100 applicants aged between 15 and 19.

Speaker of the House of Commons MP John Bercow, said: “I am delighted to support this exciting new select committee project which empowers young people to examine important issues and highlights the power of politics to change things for the better.”